Prologue

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Once upon a time, in a faraway place, the all-father Odin rallied his troops to Asgard, kingdom of the gods of Midgard. His beloved son Baldur had been killed by Loki, and his fate was to be forever consigned to the underworld of Nifheim, ruled by Loki's daughter. This was the first sign that Ragnarok--the doom of the gods-had finally commenced, as the wise Odin had predicted.

The gods knew they could not escape their tragic destiny that was to come. Deep down, they knew their fate was doomed. The elves and the dwarfs answered to Odin's call as they prepared for Ragnarok. This final battle would determine the fate of the Nine Worlds. The journey to Midgard, the home of the human civilization, had begun.

Mankind, elves, and the dwarves fought side by side against Loki's minions,the horde of the undead, the frost giants, and Surt's fire giants. The fire giant Surt, wielding a flaming sword, was determined to lead the giants to victory over the gods.

When the Great Winter came, darkness covered Midgard for three years in a row, with no hint of summer. Many were disoriented from the frigid blizzards. This led to mutiny, and human civilization fell into cynicism.

Oath breakers escalated amongst the gods themselves. Discipline was lacking and eventually led to their demise, as the fortifications of Asgard and the bindings of both the pseudo-god Loki and his son Fenrir had been poorly supervised. As a result, Loki and Fenrir broke free of their fetters. Together, they escaped Asgard and regrouped with the frost and fire giants, setting out to do precisely what the gods feared they would do once their freedom was gained.

The great world tree Yggdrasil, which represented the cosmos of the Nine Worlds, began to tremble from its roots up to the tips of its branches. Odin received that dreadful news and left Thor in command of the battle in Midgard. He opened and entered the Bifrost and returned to Asgard. Odin's departure further decreased the alliances' morale.

The all-seeing Heimdall was the first to spot the vast army of the fire giants, led by Surt, approaching from the south of Muspelhiem; Surt's flaming sword was glowing ever brightly across the cosmos. Naglfar's ship sailed from Niflheim carrying a horde of the undead. On that boat was Loki and his wolf-son Fenrir, heading the boat, whose on a course toward Vígríðr—Midgard's largest battlefield.

At Asgard, Heimdall sounded his horn Gjallarhorn and alerted the gods of a detached force of undead and fire giants approaching the celestial stronghold and led by Loki himself. Loki was cunning enough to fool Heimdall's all-seeing ability by placing a decoy of himself on board the Naglfar as it sailed for Midgard and the final stages of Ragnarok.

The final battle began and humans, with aid from the Valkyries from Valhalla, began to push back the undead invasion. However, the giants rampaged through the lands and destroyed the gods, destroying mankind's morale. Fenrir, the great wolf, ran across the lands with his lower jaw grazing the landscape and his upper jaw touching the sky, together consuming everything in its path. Even the sun was engulfed into the belly of Fenrir.

Odin and Tyr confronted Fenrir and lost their lives as the great wolf Fenrir swallowed Odin whole. Odin's younger son Vidar, in blinding rage, took up arms, slayed the great wolf, and relayed the message to his step-mother Frigga, the Queen of Asgard. Frigga wept, for the second time, for the loss of her husband just as she got over her beloved son Baldur's death and died with a broken heart.

Jormungand,the middle offspring of Loki, also known as the Midgard Serpent,slithered in from the sea and destroyed nearby villages. Outraged,Thor grew furious and unleashed the Warrior's Madness. Thor went berserk, hammering everything that stood in his path until he met his arch nemesis. Thor delivered a decisive blow with his legendary war-hammer Mjolnir to the Midgard Serpent's head, splitting the serpent in half. Unfortunately, Thor breathed in too much of Jormungand's miasma. Looking up at Asgard one last time, he muttered his final words to his wife Sif and his children, and fell dead after walking ten steps into the sea.

The God Freyr, though disoriented with the loss of his comrades,brothers, and sisters, cut down the many giants in his way as he approached the fire giant leader. Surt's flaming, radiant sword swept across the globe, setting the world and the world tree ablaze. The battlefield was awash in the blood of mankind, the gods, and the beasts, bringing forth the conclusion. The God Freyr and Surt did battle. With Freyr's magical sword lacking power, Freyr could not hope to withstand the strokes of Surt's brute strength. Freyr was cut down by Surt.

Heimdall and Asgard's remaining forces repelled the invasion. Heimdall and Loki did battle, shape shifting into many different animals. Loki had the upper hand throughout most of the fight until he summoned a powerful black sphere of dark matter and cast it directly at the palace. Tragically, Heimdall drove himself into the sphere's projected path, shielded the palace with his body. Heimdall died instantly, but miraculously, he threw his longsword at a long distance that pierced its way through Loki's heart.

Loki spun out of control and fell off the Bifrost and into the dark void.

Bellow,Surt roared as he plunged his mighty, flaming sword into the heart of Midgard. The world, along with Yggdrasil tree, scorched as a great inferno roared around it. Earthquakes came and the land was thrown back into the sea. The pillar that Midgard held Asgard above crumbled. Asgard collapsed as its scattered ruins and remaining inhabitants fell into the eternal black void of the Ginnungagap—their fate forever consigned to the underworld.

Surt's whereabouts remained unknown.

Sif and her children vanished without a trace.

The age of everlasting darkness, death, and repose did not last forever. Baldur returned from the underworld and reunited with his bother Vidar. Together, they reformed Midgard. Over time, the land gladdened and became more fruitful with the help of their immortality and godly powers. Baldur and Vidar became mortal as the Yggdrasil tree bloomed once again. Remarkably, two human inhabitants survived the apocalypse and were reawakened in the new green world. Their names were Lif and Lifthrasir.

The children of Lif and Lifthrasir repopulated the new world while Baldur and Vidar watched on as the new guardians of the Nine Worlds. Vidar,unlike his brother, never settled down with one of the descendants of Lif and Lifthrasir. Instead, he set out to the underworld to free his kin from hell's clutches. That was the last time Baldur ever saw his brother.

Baldur grew old, and on his deathbed, had a premonition that Loki would return from the underworld with his minions to unleash a phenomenon that had been forgotten since the beginning of time and that a great peril for now the remaining Eight Worlds was yet to come. Baldur fore saw that Loki's mischief would throw the entire cosmos into chaos. One individual would rise up and become a legendary hero. And he would become an obstruction to Loki. He was one of Baldur's descendants. Eddie Ferguson.

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